WORK to create a new filling station and convenience store on a prominent Shipley site will start “very soon.”

Bradford Council has this week approved plans to fully redevelop the former Colin Appleyard site on Otley Road.

Under the plans the existing building will be flattened, with a new petrol filling station built along with a 200 square metre shop that would open 24 hours a day and a car wash.

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And the company behind the plans, Valli Forecourts, says it will create up to 30 jobs.

The prominent site had previously been used as a petrol filling station, called the Civic Service Station, from the 1950s to the 1990s, but that facility has long since been shut and the underground tanks made safe.

It left the centre of Shipley without a filling station - the nearest ones being either in Baildon or Saltaire.

The planning application was submitted in April, and has this week been approved by Bradford Council.

A spokesman for the company told the Telegraph & Argus that works to the site would start very soon.

Second shot for Shipley dessert parlour plan

Most recently the site has been used as a Colin Appleyard Suzuki dealership. But the company re-located to Canal Road in Bradford last year. It left the prominent space in Shipley town centre, one one of the district’s busiest routes, vacant.

A neighbouring unit that was also used by Colin Appleyard is not included in these plans. An application to turn that building into a dessert parlour has been submitted to Bradford Council with a decision expected in the coming weeks.

One plan for that site has already been refused for highway safety reasons, but the scheme has been re-submitted with alterations that applicant Sajid Sadiq believe will allay the Council’s concerns.

Valli Forecourts run 15 forecourts, including sites in Leeds, Guiseley and Birmingham, and in their application said the site would use environmentally friendly equipment in the filling station including photovoltaics, voltage optimisation and LED lighting.

Approving the scheme this week, planning officers for Bradford Council said: “The proposal is considered acceptable in this location and will not be detrimental to the vitality of the shopping centre.

“There is also a nearby 24-hour ASDA which is unlikely to be adversely affected by the convenience store.

“24-hour opening is proposed, given the location where there are other 24-hour operations as well as late night pubs and restaurants this is considered acceptable.

“It is also considered that there will be less customers in the early hours of the morning.”

Highways officers said that while manoeuvres in the site would be “tight” but acceptable.